


a rose by any other name

by grancenturio



Category: The Caligula Effect (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Gen, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 12:38:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19251358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grancenturio/pseuds/grancenturio
Summary: the tale of a princess and her knight.





	a rose by any other name

**Author's Note:**

> I've actually had this one sitting in my drive for a really long time since I originally planned to write a longfic out of it, but...
> 
> pour one out for this addition to the "verses I would very much like to write more of but just don't have the drive to" pile, I guess.

_“Over here, Asuka!”_

_Ichika's hands are hidden behind her dress as she grins playfully at Asuka, motionlessly beckoning her sister over. Asuka, for her part, trots over to Ichika's side, her smile filled with exasperated fondness for her whimsical twin._

_“And… here! For you!” Ichika exclaims, unveiling a tightly intertwined crown of spider lilies with a flourish, before pressing it gently onto Ichika's head. “Mm, it suits you!”_

_Asuka can't help but raise an eye at the choice of flower. “Isn't this… kind of morbid?”_

_“Is it?” Taking a step back, Ichika chews on her lip as she stares at Asuka. “I still think it suits you, though.”_

_“If you say so.” Asuka shakes her head, but leaves the flower crown in place. She's long gotten used to her twin's strangeness — it's part of her reason why she loves her sister so much, even. “The sun's starting to go down,” she notes, glancing at the horizon. “We should head back before Mother gets mad.”_

_Ichika trails along behind Asuka on the way back, humming softly as they make their way back down the roughly cut dirt path. The sisters walk in companionable silence, as Ichika's humming fades to a stop._

_Then a scream cuts through the silence, and it takes Asuka a moment for it to register as Ichika's._

_“Ichika?!” Whirling, Asuka sees her sister kicking and struggling against the grasp of an armored knight._ Castle knights? But why?!

_She has no time to ponder that question, though, as she casts around for the biggest stick she can find. Picking it up, she raises it and charges at the knight with a yell, intent on making them release their hold on her sister._

_The knight raises their arm to block Asuka's wild swing, and in that moment, Ichika manages to squirm free of their remaining arm and half-stumble, half-run towards the thick woods that border the path. Where she then pauses, turning back to throw Asuka a worried glance._

_“Ichika! Run—” Asuka's yell is interrupted by the knight yanking her makeshift club out of her hands and tossing it aside with a growl. Even as the knight's armored fist connects with her stomach and her world explodes into a burst of pain, she sees Ichika starting to run towards her out of the corner of her eye._

_“No—” she begins to gasp weakly. But even as the word tumbles from her mouth, it's already too late. Asuka sees, as if in slow motion, a hooded figure materialize behind Ichika. She can only watch in horror as the knight turns away from her to grab Ichika instead, throwing an arm around her sister's neck and simply squeezing until Ichika falls limp._

_The hooded figures glides more than walks over to the knight, gloved hands extending from under their robe to lightly touch both the knight and Ichika's unconscious form._

_Asuka pushes herself up with a pained grunt. Not even bothering with a weapon, she instead throws herself forward, reaching, grasping, for Ichika—_

_The air around them warps, and all three figures disappear from right before her eyes._

_“Ichika—!”_

* * *

Asuka wakes with a start, and a stifled cry on her lips. She takes a few long moments to calm herself, lying still in bed until her breathing has returned to normal. Only then does she cautiously peer around the room.

A loud snore from the bed next to hers confirms that her sudden awakening went unnoticed. Asuka pushes herself upright in bed to glance out of the window — the moon is still high in the night sky, leaving her plenty of time to conduct her search tonight. Careful not to make any noise, she goes to rummage in her trunk for her day clothes, quickly shedding her nightclothes to throw on a functional tunic and pants. Flickering candle in hand, Asuka cautiously pushes open the barracks door, and slips out.

The barracks are dark and quiet, as expected, and Asuka easily makes her way through the darkened wing towards the main castle building. Here, oil lamps light the corridors just enough that she can hide in the deep shadows they cast, and she does exactly that, slipping from shadow to shadow as she dodges the occasional night servant or rowdy minor noble and continues on.

Truth be told, she has no idea what she's doing. It's been slightly over three years since her sister was taken, and she still isn't used to waking up (often abruptly, always from the same nightmare) to an empty bedroom and a subdued house.

Her, truth be told, entirely half-baked plan of running away from home and getting into the castle grounds as a knight in training might not have been the best one, but it was better than keeping up with her parents' paper-thin pretense that she'd always been an only child, that everything was just fine and there wasn't a gaping hole in Asuka's heart where her sister used to be.

So here she is, disguised as a male trainee and sneaking around the castle at night in a last-ditch attempt to find _something_ that will hopefully lead her to her sister.

“Um… what are you doing?”

She's been caught.

Asuka whirls to face the source of the voice, all her senses on alert. Mentally, she's already running through all the possible situations here, and none of them look good. It's already bad enough that she's been found alone, without her fellow knight-trainees, but this far from the barracks, and in a restricted area to boot? Wildly, she casts around, looking for a conveniently sized thing for a makeshift weapon—

“Oh, did I scare you? I'm so sorry!” The other person speaks again, and Asuka blinks. It takes a moment for her racing thoughts to calm down, but once it sinks in that the person speaking to her is a teenage girl, the breath she was holding in slowly releases itself in a quiet hiss.

Now that she's no longer panicking, Asuka can take a better look at the other girl. She looks fairly young, perhaps a year or two younger than Asuka herself. Her hair, long and loose, is strikingly white, painting a stark contrast against her deep purple nightclothes. She's staring openly at Asuka, who can't see anything but naive curiosity in her open gaze.

“Ah… I apologize. I just—” Asuka begins, but the girl cuts her off.

“Oh! I recognize that attire! You're one of the new knight-trainees, right?”

“...Um.” Caught red-handed, Asuka can only swallow, her mouth suddenly dry.

The girl, however, only claps her hands together in childish glee. “Knight-trainees aren't allowed here, so that means you're trespassing! So you can't tell anyone I'm here, or I'll tell them about you!”

“I— huh…?”

The girl looks her up and down, as if sizing her up, before nodding happily to herself. “Mmhm! We're accomplices now! Ah, but you could be doing something bad here…? I can't be accomplices with a bad person, so maybe I should call the guards after all…”

“D-Don't!” The word rips itself from Asuka's throat in a panic. The other girl cocks her head to the side curiously, her eyes still locked with Asuka's. Taking a deep breath, Asuka continues, “I'm just looking for my sister. She looks just like me— well, me but female,” she hastily amends, remembering her current disguise. “Perhaps you've seen her around…?”

“Like you, but female…” The other girl taps a finger on her chin, thinking, before shaking her head. “I… no, I'm sorry. I don't see many people around here.”

Asuka allows herself a single sigh. Another dead end, then. “I see. I'll be going now. Let's, ah, just both pretend this meeting never happened.”

“Wait!” She's already turned to leave when the girl calls out to her. “Um… you come from the outside of the castle, don't you?”

Curious, Asuka pauses to raise an eyebrow at the girl. “A small village far away, yes.”

“Then, could you…!” The girl has her hands clasped pleadingly to her chest, hope brimming in her eyes. “Could you… escort me around the city outside?!”

“...Hah?”

“I… I'm not supposed to leave my rooms, you see.” The girl looks away guiltily, wringing her hands together as she does so. “But it's so lonely and boring staying there all the time, and the city always looks so pretty from outside the window, so I want to go see it for myself! I don't know anything about the outside world, though, so I'd need a guide…”

That explains why the girl was worried about Asuka telling on her, at least. And although Asuka can sympathize with her situation…

“I'm sorry. I need to find my sister, I don't have time for this.”

“Please!” The girl's giving Asuka her best puppy dog eyes now. “I'll help you look for your sister in return!”

 _How much help could someone locked in her own room be?_ Asuka thinks bitterly, before regretting the thought almost immediately. The girl is clearly well-meaning, if naive and hopelessly sheltered.

“Alright,” she finally concedes. “If you can ensure that I won't get caught, or get into any kind of trouble… then, fine. I'll show you around.”

“Oh, that's easy!” The girl's cheer has returned at Asuka's agreement. “I'll just request for you to be my personal guard, so us being constantly together won't seem strange. And no one really cares what I do most of the time, so we can sneak out from the secret exit in my rooms and be back by dinner without anyone noticing!”

“Personal… guard? Secret exit?” Asuka's starting to get the feeling that she's just landed herself in waters a lot deeper than she bargained for. “I should have asked first, but— who are you?”

“My name's Mu!” the girl replies cheerfully, and—

—Oh. Oh no. Ohhh _nooo._ “Y-Your Highness!” Asuka manages to stutter, quickly dipping into a bow. “I apologize deeply for not recognizing you—”

“Nuh-uh! None of that between us!” The princess— Mu— has her arms crossed, cheeks puffed up in a pout as she glares at Asuka. It's kind of adorable, actually. “I'm tired of everyone doing that to me, so when it's just us two, I want you to call me by my name! Okay?”

“As you wish, Your… M-Mu.” When Asuka straightens up from her hasty bow, Mu's grinning happily at her again.

“Okay! Now you've got to tell me _your_ name too!”

“A— Thorn. I'm called Thorn.” Again, Asuka remembers her disguise just in time.

“ _Thorn_ … mm… I like it,” Mu murmurs. “Nice to meet you, Sir Thorn, and see you tomorrow!” She gives Asuka an enthusiastic parting wave, before turning to presumably run back to her rooms. ...No, _skip_ back to her rooms, from the looks of it.

Asuka watches her go, and only after Mu's turned a corner does Asuka slowly begin to make her own way back to the barracks. She's starting to get the feeling that she's just gotten herself in something way over her head.

**Author's Note:**

> "thorn, but well-adjusted" sure is a wild character concept to write huh


End file.
